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Pretoria, 31 October 2014 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for September 2014 that recorded a trade deficit of R2.91 billion. This figure includes trade data between South Africa and Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS countries).

Summary
The R2.91 billion deficit for September 2014 is due to exports of R90.79 billion and imports of R93.71 billion. Exports increased from August to September 2014 by R14.00 billion (18.2%) and imports increased from August to September 2014 by R0.17 billion (0.2%).

The cumulative deficit for 2014 is R73.74 billion compared to R63.07 billion in 2013.

Trade highlights by category

The month-on-month export movements:

R’ million

Section:

Including BLNS:

Precious Metals & Stones

+ R4 844

44.9%

Mineral Products

+ R3 911

24.3%

Vehicles & Transport Equipment

+ R2 075

22.4%

Chemical Products

+ R1 045

21.6%

Base Metals

+ R 883

8.9%

Machinery & Electronics

+ R 875

10.8%

Other Unclassified

+ R 606

233.0%

Vegetable Products

– R 695

– 13.5%

The month-on-month import movements:

R’ million

Section:

Including BLNS:

Vegetable Products

+ R1 305

76.7%

Chemical Products

+ R 631

7.3%

Base Metals

+ R 548

13.9%

Mineral Products

+ R 542

2.6%

Equipment Components

– R 901

-13.0%

Vehicles and Transport Equipment

-R 1 137

-12.9%

Machinery and Electronics

-R 1 481

-6.6%

Trade highlights by world zone

The world zone results for September 2014 are given below.

Africa:
Exports: R 28 202 million – this is an increase of R 3 949 million from August 2014
Imports: R 11 573 million – this is a decrease of R 1 471 million from August 2014
Trade surplus: R 16 629 million.
This is a 48.4% increase in comparison to the R 11 208 million surplus recorded in August 2014.

America:
Exports: R 8 249 million – this is an increase of R 1 732 million from August 2014
Imports: R 9 054 million – this is a decrease of R 243 million from August 2014
Trade deficit: -R 805 million
This is a 71.1% decrease in comparison to the -R 2 780 million deficit recorded in August 2014.

Asia:
Exports: R 25 959 million – this is an increase of R 2 465 million from August 2014
Imports: R 44 095 million – this is an increase of R 2 717 million from August 2014
Trade deficit: -R 18 137 million
This is a 1.4% increase in comparison to the -R 17 885 million deficit recorded in August 2014.

Europe:
Exports: R 22 599 million ¬– this is an increase of R 4 553 million from August 2014
Imports: R 27 725 million– this is a decrease of R 642 million from August 2014
Trade deficit: -R 5 125 million
This is a 50.3% decrease in comparison to the -R 10 320 million deficit recorded in August 2014.

Oceania:
Exports: R 998 million ¬ – this is an increase of R 65 million from August 2014
Imports: R1 167 million – this is a decrease of R 185 million from August 2014
Trade deficit: -R 169 million
This is a 59.6% decrease in comparison to the -R 419 million deficit recorded in August 2014

Trade Statistics excluding BLNS countries

The trade data excluding BLNS for September 2014 recorded a trade deficit of R 12.64 billion.

Summary
The R 12.64 billion deficit for September 2014 is as a result of exports of R 78.60 billion and imports of R 91.24 billion. Exports increased from August to September by R 12.00 billion (18.0%) and imports increased from August to September by R 0.27 billion (0.3%).

The world zone results from August 2014 to September 2014 are given below.

Africa:
Exports: R 16 005 million – this is an increase of R 1 947 million from August 2014
Imports: R 9 107 million – this is a decrease of R 1 371 million from August 2014
Trade surplus: R 6 898 million
This is a 92.7% decrease in comparison to the R 3 580 million surplus recorded in August.